IT’S RIGHT ON YOUR HEELS – By Oluwakemi Omowaire.

THIS HUNTER WON’T STOP HUNTING.

You remember that familiar fear you had as a child, when you have lathered soap on your face and your eyes are tightly closed. Then somehow a fearful thought comes creeping in on you, telling you someone or some spirit was touching your hair or was about to pull your ear. So you quickly reach out for the shower lock or reach for the water bucket and hurriedly pour water on your face. You even begin to open your eyes before the soup is all washed off so u quickly see before the masquerade carries you away. When finally you open your eyes gasping for air, you look, turn your neck this way and that way, seeing nothing, you then sigh a quiet sigh, satisfied that there was nothing hunting you. And aww! What a relief.
Well, maybe there’s indeed nothing hunting you in the shower, but in real life dearie you’ve got a hunter.
Like nights when still silence pervades the air and sleep refuses to romance the eyes, insomnia is often no respecter of persons, so tonight even my closed eyelids were not enough bait for sleep. I lay still on my bed facing the ceiling. I thought about life and time, the world and about my country and its people. And how no one is indispensable.. So I decided to write.
Sometimes when I consider the attributes of those who in the past and in the present have made dramatic contributions to their societies and to the world, people who have won the admiration and the respect of millions, people who have inspired, encouraged, and influenced other peoples’ life in a good way. I just cannot but marvel at their audacity, their inner strength, ruggedness and above all their selflessness.
Maybe it’s harder ‘to live right’ these days, or maybe it’s just perception. But I agree that in my country though, it’s hard to be a hero. It’s hard enough to come from such country. A country that half the world have slammed all sorts of sanctions on. You cannot travel outside your country without hearing your country vilified. You cannot watch international cable news without seeing how much lower your country has sunken in the list of nations with poor records. And yes, the weight on our psyche could be enormous.
Our politicians or our supposed leaders spill promises. Promises that are too light and have wings. Their good words flutter away on the winds no sooner than they are uttered. A country where upside down the law is standing upon its own head. A country that tramples upon its own law.
Wait, I’m not exactly here to whine till dawn about what my country is or is not. Halleluja! Even a two year old child in my country knows what ‘Up NEPA’ means. The same way I knew it before I knew how to call ‘mama’.
But tonight as sleep eludes these eyes of mine and my thoughts travels across river Benue, river Zambesi, and travels across the atlantic ocean; my worry is instead about my country people. Are we even any better than the government we condemn? We’ve become so material-driven. Be it legit or illegit, ‘I gaz to belong!’ Like Jenifa in the movie Jenifa. Our values have declined even more, and our society is now one where even the over-exposed and over-connected social circles do not truly wish their neighbors well. They think so little of the same same friends they kiss so passionately on the cheeks, the ones they give bear hugs and call darlings. We are so lost in our drive for wealth gathering so much that what matter matters no more and what do not matter now matters. Folks’ life race is now such a worrisome competition on who knows more ‘boys-in-government’, and who gets fatter contracts from Abuja. We are becoming a people who when it comes to good manners we cannot seem to rise above ourselves. We stopped caring about each other, and I mean truly caring. We stoop only to worship those who have perfected the art of creating the ‘We own this land’ illusion. We stand in awe only of people who sit in upper class lounge of airplanes, throw the biggest ‘Owambe’ parties in town, and have the president or a governor’s direct line on their phone contacts.
A society where pride is now worn like a party hat. We now only care about social-rankings, we have become so self-indulgent, and we remember to say ‘hello’ only to friends whose got great news of ‘I have stepped-up’ ‘multi-million dollar contract’ or ‘I’m on a world tour’ related status updates on their BBM.
I do not approve of or celebrate mediocrity, neither would I celebrate a knapsack state of mind. But it’s just sad to see how boldly we’ve chosen to murder ‘Ubutu’ the spirit of Africa. “I am, because you are!”
Together we have survived the many, never-ending tribulations as a nation. Indeed our optimism is plausible. But where is the love? The statement “God is in control.” Is often readily on the tip of our tongue, it’s so familiar to our lips like our spit. Yet there are so many things maybe, that we can help each other with, but that can be only by caring and truly caring.
Yes the many problems of Nigeria can leave one confused like the many enchanting jargons of Patrick Obahiagbon. And yes, just like he’ll say, there have been days when such news ranging from ‘Our street transformer don blow’ to the news of fresh Boko-Haram bombings had brought us emotional lacerations and thrown us into a state of utter catalepsy. Lol! I smile now too because we’ve always learned to smile under the weight of our accumulated worries. The ones that hasn’t gotten any lighter since independence. Worries that even the joyful drum-beats and street dances to the news of Abacha’s death have refused to lighten. We thought our misery would abruptly end with Abacha, but oops, it’s been many years down, and we still drive on thesame bad roads, we still pray thesame prayers of ‘God please let NEPA bring light.’ Still same tale of deteriorating educational system, same song of money laundering, same heart-wretching story of injustice murdering justice. The list is too long. Still long. Still too long.
If only our leaders would care. If only our public office holding uncles and aunties would care.
We are known as a religious nation and indeed we are! There are more churches than schools, more mosques than creativity centers. Maybe we should pause and just ask who it is that truly we worship. We sing ‘Hallelujah’ and few minutes after, outside the church, at the car parking lot we fight and curse, “who is the idiot that parked this filthy Jalopy offensively beside my 2013 machine!”
Well, maybe it’s time to step off the ‘It’s All about me’ threshold. Time to reduce our ego-foamed padded shoulders and cast off our high hats of selfishness. To build a great nation requires a dedication beyond self, and the rewards are our only hope. Maybe then we can begin to truly feel at home in our own home.
If we ain’t hunting something, something is closely hunting us. No matter who we are, there is always something bigger than us that calls. Let us NOT stop considering how to stimulate one another to love and to good deeds. Because Life like time is of the essence. And at the end of it all, when the heart stops beating, when all is over, it is how life is lived that would be told long after we are gone. We can be a great people a great nation if we truly so desire to be. For when the actions of a people are undergirded by strong values and genuiness and a true spirit, there is safety. We must understand selfless truths and apply it to our modern life.
As a nation, we must again and again draw strength from the almost forgotten virtues of simplicity, humility, resilience, genuine care. And we must seek to contribute our own quota nontheless, by striving to be the best of ourselves. Not giving up on our dreams in the midst of all. Moving against the grain of society on a matter of principle, and by making small daily sacrifices to build great character and influence.
Maybe, just maybe this will make our sun rise and our gloom lift as a nation.
I’m black, I’m Nigerian, and so are you. Not even a plastic face like that of Micheal Jackson will change who you are. Escape to America or Austria all you want, even when you still do not carry a green passport like our british Michael Adebolajo, your origin will always come hunting. It will cost more than the blood of a thousand cows to wash off our global badly sang, dented image. But our individual, hence collective efforts will someday save our break.

OluwakemiFULLY.